YUM GEEE YUM!!

The last fortnight was truly an eventful one for me. I had my first ever glimpse of mobs (of the tod-phod type) albeit of the juvenile/minor kind. Where? Who?.. Mahatma Gandhi Mission's college yaaph yinginyering yaand tuchno(low,all time)gy, Students protesting the fee hike. Also, some really cool slogans which I learnt were: "Chor hai, chor hai, MGM chor hai", "Jhoota hai,jhoota hai, principal jhoota hai" and the tacky,corny crowd favourite "MGM hai hai!!" I must admit though; the hike notice really roused the dormant artist in them. Posters, and there were quite a few of them, were pasted on every vinyl inch of the college walls, cartoons mocking the principal and the head trustee, which they don't trust anymore, in addition to plain dumb graffiti like "NO FEE HIKE!" and the in-your-face warning "Do not attain lectures". Spelling mistake? Yes.. but as Ratan Noora would put it, "bhaavnaaon ko samjho". Those who took admission in 02-03, like moi, were exempted from the hike but to the majority it was applicable. On reading the notice (with great difficulty and with the help of last semester's PCT topper), the suave, uber-cool stew-dents formed a large mob before the entrance and shattered the glass doors in anger. Given the lack of ventilation in classrooms and inadequate sunlight, this indeed was an opportune move. Effigies of the principal and the head trustee were made and burnt using Ship matchsticks and pocket cigarette lighters. The nation's most eminent and pioneering news channels (ETV Marathi, NMTV and Sahara Samay) were drawn to this incident and the TV cameras certainly gave stew-dents their 15 seconds of fame they craved for. Giggling faces, feigned anger and "arre tikde bugh, camera aale" became the in-thing. The episode lasted for much of four days and later fizzled out into a more sedate "We are still in protest but will resume attending lectures the coming week". I doubt this would have been the stand if there were any glass doors intact though. For most, the week was something out of the ordinary given the undercurrent of excitement one could feel all around the campus. In fact, un-confirmed but largely believable reports are coming in that most vidyarthis were glued to their TV sets hoping to catch a glimpse of their exploits the whole week.

Coming soon

Hi dear friends! (you're dear 'coz you read my blog) I gave the CET last month; wasn't bad. College is full of hustle-bustle of late. I'm striving to meet deadlines for getting my assignments checked. A lot of project work too is pending so expect me to be preoccupied and out of action (the blogging one) for atleast a week. Catch you later :)

Sick of rhetoric

Our politicians sure seem to have a way with words and at certain times, they somehow seem to be at their eloquent,loquacious best. Yet another bomb blast occurred last night inside two coaches of the Delhi-Attari Samjhauta express killing 66 people. The moment one reads this, even if he knows an iota about how things are here, one will easily guess what the motive is and who dunnit. I find it amusing how easy it is to accurately predict reactions of our leaders when such incidents occur. They know what to say without any emotion at all; all their responses are mere studied ones, not with any conviction or seriousness. Promptly, they offer 'X' lakh Rs. compensation, and (to save their bottoms) promise that the police will get to the bottom of the incident.

A few mindless, hackneyed ones that came out this time around are..

1. "We condemn this incident." - PM (achaa?)
2. "It is an act of terrorism." - HM (ha! no way, kya baat kar raha hai)
3. "It is an act of cowardice." (heard THAT before)
4. "India will not bow before terrorism." PM again (he said the same thing after 7/11)
5. "Terrorists trying to derail the peace process." (literally derail. RM at his obvious best)
6. "Matter will be investigated." (HM again)

Notice how not a single statement among these even remotely hints at any sort of apology or regret! Why cant they hold themselves slightly accountable and own up to the security lapses? Its clear that it isn't done because of the fear of being taken to the cleaners by the opposition parties and would be tantamount to political suicide?

F.Y.I:
PM - prime minister
HM - home minister
RM - railway minister

All this thrash talk showing defiance/courage is alright but how about being on one's toes 24X7? Why do we wait for such a thing to happen to get alert? Why is it that a nation, 3 times our size and MANY times as likely to be a victim of terror attack given its policies, hasn't witnessed a single terrorist attack after 9/11? When is the Indian Railways going to realise that it IS a favourite of terrorists? It ought to come down like a ton of bricks on the incompetent personnel who were in-charge of frisking the passengers and security. Now even foreigners are paying the price for their laxity 'coz the blasts claimed many Pakistani passengers as well.

Open up and say ahh!!

Hi guys! Just wanna share something I'm ecstatic about. My 7th semester results are out, they were declared yesterday, and I have passed!! I am so relieved and pleasantly surprised 'coz my elective wasn't exactly great but shockingly I scored 59 in it :) although the fact that I was awarded grace marks ('condoned' is the word actually) in a paper I thought I would walk all over is another matter. This,in fact, is the first time I have cleared all subjects of a single semester in my first attempt so that makes it TWO firsts :D Secondly, lol, this has made my folks very very happy. You are now reading the blog of a guy who just cant seem to wipe the satisfaction off his face. There's a spring in his step, with occasional tip-toe jumps, frequent snapping of fingers, broad chest, and a chin that's anti-gravity. Cheers! (hic):D

"Mumbai will burn!"..calories (satire)

In what can be described as a clear misunderstanding of the utterance of some words in Shiv Sena founder/leader/....be all and end all - Bal Thackeray's public speech on Sunday, the media reported that he warned of violence if Mumbai is delinked from Maharashtra. No section of the media cared to look into the other issue with regard to which he may have said what he did: "Mumbai will burn!". If they even slightly had their wits about them then they would have remembered that the speech came only a week after 30,000 jobless,unemployed and sick-of-everything-Mumbai enthusiasts ran their hearts out in a marathon organised by the "Poised" (and biased) Times Of India group. According to www.quacks-thrive-coz-u-r-dumb.com, Mumbaikars burnt 1200000 calories of fat, skin, acne, hair while running mindlessly for 10 kilometers in what seemed like a drill conducted by the Mumbai police to prepare for the scramble one may have to make during possible,future cases of rioting and deluges. The mercurial Mumbaikar (Mr.Thackeray), it was reported, had not read the papers for the last two weeks. He merely stated the obvious while talking of the marathon to the obese that the marathon (which Mumbaikars often run to get a glimpse of rare, 'once-in-a-green-moon' sights of clean roads) has several benefits. The city's treadmill manufacturers, who have always been pro-Congress since the days of rubber mats, were the real target of BT who have reportedly gone into losses following the out-and-out contempt shown for treadmills shown by the runners who gave a 'screw-them-treadmills' look of satisfaction when they finished their dream runs.

On a note-so-happy note

Its a sad sort of day for me. I usually have such days a few times a year and its the same sinking,surrendering feeling I'm filled with again right now, this instant. I guess when one does not get what one hopes (not being selected for a B-school, in my case), one's bound to have that 'so close, yet so far' feeling. My emotions are somewhat similar. Maybe it wasn't in my destiny. Compared to my previous 'sad' days, I'm extra depressed this time 'coz I really thought I'd get through once I finished with the rounds which I believe went through pretty satisfactorily. I try talking to a close friend but the situation isn't any better. Some say maybe something better is in store for me but I'm still depressed. Lets see, maybe next time. I know I somehow have to bear this defeat but like every other time, I'm finding it tough. Maybe some time alone will help. I try saying in my mind 'Jo bhi hota hai achche ke liye hota hai' (Whatever happens happens for the good) Dekhte hain, dekhte hain

Hyporcrites are us!

Too much has already been written on Shilpa Shetty and her "traumatic" experience in Channel 4's reality show 'Big Brother'.Wait... don't get me wrong, I'm gonna do exactly the same now.

As always, my ultra-sensitive fellow countrymen reacted "strongly" and our over enthusiastic media stoked their emotions. No one bothered to actually verify whether Jade Goody (without two shoes actually) did utter the words or were they just media speculation. Barkha Dutt wrote in her article 'Pride and prejudice' in HT (Jan 20) that Jade (who'se father is of African origin) called Shilpa a 'cunt' instead of 'Paki' as the media reported. Another participant slyly asked ''I don't know how Indians eat with their fingers.. I mean who knows where the fingers have been''. Shilpa was also told go back to her 'slum'. Ironically,she was called a 'dog' by one of the bitches too. So hearing all this hurt out pride, awoke our dormant nationalism and brought out generalised and hypocritical remarks against Britishers.

Why do I say hypocritical? Because..
1. To us, Indians of the northeastern states or people of east Asia are 'cheeni-meeni' or 'chinki'
2. We call Africans or people of African origin 'Kaalu'
3. We consume tonnes and tonnes of fairness creams every year to get ourselves or our daughters to be pretty (meaning 'fair-skinned') as we feel anyone with a dark or dusky skin tone is inferior and less pretty.
4. Most of the marriage proposals in our newspapers include: 'Wanted,a fair..bride"
5. A foreigner coming from Europe ,the Americas or Australia is referred to as 'gora' or 'firrang'

Isn't all this racist? If we are so proud of our colour then why do we prefer 'white' grooms? That's pretty racist isn't it? Lets get our own house in order because accusing Britain and its people of being racially discriminating shall we?

Now that Shilpa has in fact denied being racially abused by saying that she didn't feel Jade's abuses were racist leaves us (media+aam junta) embarrassed doesn't it? Now whether Shilpa really didn't take Jade's comments as racist or whether she denied it because she was discreetly reminded by the Big Brother management about her fat fee (3.5 crores) and the losses the channel may face, your guess is as good as mine.